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Gardening Advice
Growing your own salad greens will put a world of fresh ingredients at your fingertips. Whether you are a gourmet salad lover who likes to experiment with interesting greens or someone who just wants to have your own homegrown lettuce, your choices are only limited by the seeds you can find and the space you have.Types of Salad GreensWe always think of spinach and lettuce as the main鈥
Winter is a great time for experimenting. Since I was feeling starved for green, growing goodness to eat last month, I gave microgreens a try. I have been a longtime sprout-lover, so I grew some of those too, just to see which I liked better.While doing a seed inventory I found we had lots of extra lettuce, kale, and dill seeds which I added to a mesclun mixture of arugula, mizuna, tatsoi,鈥
When to plant garden peas? 鈥淧lant peas as soon as the ground can be worked鈥 is a popular saying in the gardening world. Unfortunately, in my garden, that means mid- to late March! However, our fortunate southern friends can often start planting in January and February. Wherever you live, see my pea-planting tips.When to Plant PeasGarden peas (Pisum sativum L.) are cool-season crops that鈥
By now, many of you have heard of Marie Kondo鈥檚 book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing can be put to good use in the garden as well.It doesn鈥檛 mean planting in straight rows or keeping the hedges rigidly trimmed. Most of us have a mental image of the landscape we鈥檇 like to have.Look around your yard and make note of what鈥
If, like me, you are a big fan of snap peas, you have noticed that over the years the quality of that classic 鈥楽ugar Snap鈥 has been deteriorating. Fortunately, these unique and favorite 鈥楽ugar Snap鈥 peas are back!
Back in 1979, 鈥楽ugar Snap鈥 was an All-America Selections National Gold Medal Winner. But over time, instead of producing true to type, as many as one-third of the plants鈥
In autumn, have you ever noticed all the seeds scattering? Plants are launching their offspring into the world! But since plants aren鈥檛 mobile, how do they spread their seeds? Discover the amazing ways seeds disperse and plants grow.If you are a seed collector, you probably have noticed the many ways Mother Nature disperses seeds to ensure a new generation of plants.Falling Fall鈥
Cold and flu season is coming up and, if you find yourself under the weather, a steaming hot cup of fresh ginger tea might be just the thing to make you feel better. If you love ginger, try growing your own!Ginger is reputed to have anti-viral properties, is good for settling an upset stomach, and improves circulation. Fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale) definitely has more zing than the鈥
I normally don鈥檛 go in for a lot of frou-frou but I love to make a braid of onions every fall. They are not only a pretty way to display your hard-won harvest but I find it is a practical way to store them as well. They get good air circulation to last longer鈥攁nd it is easy to see the size onion you want and to clip or pull it from the braid.I let the harvested onions dry on a wire rack for鈥
As summer winds down, the populations of caterpillars seem to be on the rise. Some are the larvae of butterflies, but most are moths. Let鈥檚 look closer and meet some interesting caterpillars in the garden.All caterpillars have a similar lifecycle鈥攅gg, larva, pupa, adult. Caterpillars are near the bottom of the food chain, providing protein-rich nourishment to many birds, bees, bats,鈥
When gardeners aren鈥檛 talking about the weather they are talking about bugs. This year in my garden there seems not to be so much damage from slugs and cutworms as there is from beetles.
This should not come as a surprise since beetles are the most common insect in my neck of the woods.
Most beetles are good bugs; they eat other insects and are an important link in the food chain for鈥
If the reason you garden is to feed your family, plan this year鈥檚 garden to ensure you鈥檒l have enough to see you through until spring. Here are vegetable varieties that you will stock your pantry year-round.Though we are far from self-sufficient, this year we had enough homegrown potatoes and sweet potatoes to last through March. I am working on using up the last of the applesauce, onions,鈥
Aquaponics is a gardening method that leverages the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants. The two grow together with the plants naturally filtering water for the fish and the fish providing an organic food source for the plants. Learn more about this farming method that has made its way into home gardening.What is Aquaponics?Simply put, aquaponics is a combination of鈥
